Most of the people heading from Qeshm to Pakistan take the fast route inland through Bam, and move forward to Zahedan. From there it is only 100 km to legendary Taftan border.
We were tempted to do so too, as our visa once prolonged already was very close to expire. But we’ve had some points of interest at the far Southern east corner of Iran that we did not want to skip. Besides going along the coast and crossing the entire Sistan & Balochistan from down to up seemed fantastic idea. Lots of people warned us against this area as it is believed there is a lot of smugglers, thieves and “bad people”. Other emphasise that Balochi themselves are ultimately warm hearted and you cannot leave the country without experiencing their hospitality.
So, when we circumnavigated Qeshm island we took the car ferry back and headed straight to Bandar Abbas.
Bandar Abbas and the urban energy of freedom
It is a complex city with cosmopolitan vibe and the biggest cargo port of Iran. From here ferries go to Dubai playing important role in economical migrations as well as in Middle East tourist routes.
In the past Bandar Abbas witnessed adventurous traders of Portugal, Netherlands, England, as well as Omani Arabs. Many Indians worked here within British East India Company Ventures, so Indian influence is visible on the streets as women dress in patterned sparkling chadors put on colorfull dresses.
At the time we arrived the city was absolutely overcrowded with Iranian tourists, as it was only 3 weeks till Nowruz ( Iranian New Year), so high season and good weather brought people to explore the area and shop for goods.
It seems that everybody was there with energetic, vibrant spirit. Iranian tourists came to experience relaxed atmosphere of the town and hit the islands. Villagers came with huge bags full of handicrafts to earn good profit based on seasonal price raises. The market was buzzling in the evening with customers trying to buy new clothes, furniture or gifts as a part of Nowruz tradition.
Picnic blankets, conical tents and a weird camping spot
Just after lunchtime the seaside promenade area was coming to life with numerous picnic blankets and cone shaped tents. Nibbling sunflower seeds introduced long sets of picnicking pleasures – boiling water for tea, preparing kebabs in portable grill devices and smoking shishas. Chadors (tents) have been put on the grass as well as on the pavements or just near the carelessly parked car directly in the parking lot.
We arrived at sunset and could not find a place in any hotel in the city, as the hotels were full. We’ve been invited home by several hospitable Iranians, but for that night we just felt like staying in our own piece of home was better idea. So we decided to join the crowd and put up our tent in the grassy corner just behind the main promenade.
Indeed it has been the weirdest of all our camping spots. Stuck between the main seaside highway and buzzling bicycle lane the place was loud, hot and full of people staring at our tent and motorcycles. Nevertheless it suited us as the temporary one night shelter.
We were happy to wake up the next day and just dismantle our tent as soon as possible. So after barely half an hour we were ready to visit immigration office to extend our visas.
Visas prepared in no time
What a nice surprise here – we have been received by English speaking female employee who guided us through the office. We had to leave our mobiles and camelbags at the reception and we were also searched here. Than the lady took us to the high authority who approved the extension by signing short note on our visa copy. Later on she helped the other chadori employee fill our application forms and we were asked to wait half an hour as the system was not working well. Eventually our visas were ready and we were happy to be legally travelling few more days.
It was only 11 a.m. and visas were ready so quick, that we decided to get done with last shopping in bazaar and head east along the coast at the same day.
Silly people. Finding safe parking for our loaded bikes took us over 1 hour of google translate discussions. Finally we parked in shopping mall parking just at the guards booth.
As we did not make the shopping by the time the shops closed we decided to continue in the evening and stay one more night here. In the meantime we took a nap on the beach.
Than we continued the shopping in the afternoon finding really decent garments as for Iranian standards. We were also lucky to meet Iranian who made some phone calls to hotels and booked decent well priced room for us.
We rested here for a day before we got back on the road.
Beige picturesque monadnocks and sandy plateaus
The road east of Strait of Hormoz goes straight between beige picturesque monadnocks and sandy plateaus but rarely gets close to the sea. Drivers hurry as usual and all the experience was similar to riding Qeshm island. The kilometers were passing with us watching the spectacle of golden hour landscapes.
That is the charm of overlanding – images of the road changing so slowly that you have time to notice and appreciate every single change
Closer to sunsets we started searching for apriopriate camping space. Jacek has found great place behind the vast mountain – completely hidden and not visible from the road, but little bit windy.
Putting up the tent took us more time than usually not only because of that, but also because there was rocky bedding under a thin layer of dusty soil that didn’t receive pins easily.
But in the end we’ve got one of the most picturesque locations and ended the day observing almost full moon.
Hosted in Konarak
The next day got us all riding again, but the landscape got flat and industrial by the time of searching camping spot. So we got to the nearest small city of Konarak and headed place founded on google maps that supposed to be a hotel. We stopped by a building that literally couldn’t be anything else than small provincional mosque. Luckily some man In shalvar kameez went out of the gate and managed to understand what we are looking for. To cut the story short this helpful folk called the English teacher, and this one decided to accommodate us in school’s teacher’s apartment as it was already after dark and there was no suitable place to send us – neither a hotel nor even wild camping spot.
So we’ve got the whole 2 bedroom apartment for us with bathroom and kitchen and than the teacher brought us even a dinner not to leave us hungry. Merhdad left us there alone with a lot of assuring that he is there if we needed anything we should let him know.
That was Balochistani sophisticated hospitality already that we did not know yet.
We soaked into gratitude as getting such place in the middle of nowhere was real gift for tired travellers.
The miracles of nature waited for us the next day. But not through easy way though.
Darak dunes
First we reached Darak dunes – charming stretch of hilly sands – one of the very few spots in the world where dunes meet the sea.
As the temperatures raised far above 35 degrees we were tempted to jump into the water and cool down a little bit. Not at this spot though as from time to time few Iranian visitors were coming to capture some selfies.
We decided to explore small roads used rarely by local people just at the coast and find a nice secluded spot.
The beach we discovered matched the requirements but it was quite rocky. So we spent some time here observing red crabs and small fishes stuck in small ponds.
Roads here were not easy peasy for heavy motorcycle. From decent sandy dirt roads to hard surfaced, bumpy passages with thick layers of sand blown at the full width.
The last section of the route lead through the road recently flushed and damaged heavily by water. Water has literally carved little canyons, one meter deep across the road. Local Kavirs and Pishtazes were detouring it through sandy roadsides. But for our heavy bikes the risk of falling was there with every pass.
We did fall here one by one without major injuries neither for us, nor for our bikes.
“Earth belly button” – to complete our journey
Crossing that terrain up to the paved road again took more time than expected. But than we got rewarded by the magnificent sunset views of still active mud volcano Gel Afshan. We were allowed to enter without any payments, not sure if it was because this attraction is free, or just for the reason the guard hardly understood how come we appeared there.
Being almost alone we parked our bikes high up almost at the slope and walked to the summit. So called Earth belly button has blessed us with several small flowerings in half an hour. We’ve never seen a mud volcano before, and we got hypnotized by the moony views of the area. There were visible traces of that it must had been active recently as the road leading to it seemed to vanish among dried muddy formations.
Finally the dusk made us end this visit and rush to next destination – charming Balochi dominated city of Chabahar.
